Codex Usserianus Primus

Codex Usserianus Primus (Dublin, Trinity College Library, 55) is an early 7th Century Old Latin Gospel Book. The manuscript is damaged, with the leaves being fragmentary and discolored. The remains of the approximately 180 vellum folios have been remounted on paper.

The manuscript has a single remaining decoration, a cross outlined in black dots at the end of the Luke (fol. 149v). The cross is between the Greek letters alpha and omega. It is also flanked by the explicit for Luke and the incipit for Mark. The entire assemblage is contained within a triple square frame of dots and small "s" marks with crescent shaped corner motifs. The cross has been compared to similar crosses found in the Bologna Lactantius, the Paris St. John, and the Valerianus Gospels. Initials on folios 94, 101 and 107 have been set off by small red dots. This represents the first appearance of decoration by "dotting" around text, a motif which would be important in later Insular manuscripts.

There are some paleographic similarities with early manuscripts produced at the monastery at Bobbio, such as the Bobbio Jerome and the Bobbio Orosius. However, it is now thought to have been produced in Ireland. It may therefore be the earliest surviving Irish codex.

The manuscript's traditional name can be translated as "the First Book if Uss(h)er" and refers to James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh. Despite the name, it is doubtful that Ussher ever actually owned the manuscript.

Bibliography

• Abbott, T. K., Catalogue of the manuscripts in Trinity College, Dublin, 7, 1900.
• Abbott, T. K., Evangeliorum versio antihieronymiana ex codice Usseriano, 2 vols., 1884.
• Aberg, N., The Occident and the Orient in the art of the seventh century, I; The British Isles, Stockholm, 1943.
• Alexander, J. J. G., Insular Manuscripts: 6th to the 9th Century, no. 1, London, 1978.
• Gilbert, J. T.,Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland, Part I, vi, pl. II, 1848.
• Henry, K. Irish Art in the Early Christian Period (to 800 A.D), 62, 64, 187, pl. 58London, 1965
• Kenney, J. F., The Sources for Early History of Ireland, no. 453, New York, 1929.
• Lowe, E. A., Codices Latini Antiquiores Vol. II no. 271,
• McGurk, P., Latin Gospel Books from A.D. 400 to A.D. 800, no. 84, Paris, Brussels, 1961.
• Nordenfalk, C., Celtic and Anglo-Saxon painting. Book Illumination in the British Isles 600-800, 13, fig. 1, New York, 1976.
• Nordenfalk, C, 'Before the Book of Durrow', Acta Archaeologica, 18, 1947, 147 ff., fig. 5
• Palaeographical Society: Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Innscriptions, ed. E. A. Bond, E. M Thompson, G. F. Warner, 2nd series, pl. 33, London, 1884-94.
• Westwood, J. O., Palaeographia sacra pictoris, no. 19, London, 1843-5.